Mother of Las Vegas shooting victim Rhonda LeRocque: 'No mother deserves to get a phone call like that about their baby'

Rhonda LeRocque had just sent her 6-year-old daughter, Ali, up to bed with her father-in-law while she and her husband, Jason, still enjoyed a country music festival in Las Vegas on Sunday night.

That's when the sound of gunshots rang out.

"He thought she was ducking, but she didn't get up," LeRocque's mother, Priscilla Champagne said.

It was the next morning, while Champagne was still asleep, that LeRocque's father-in-law called.

"I knew something had to be wrong," Champagne said in an interview with media, which was live streamed by WCVB News. "His words were, 'Rhonda got shot last night' and I said 'no, no, you're kidding,' and he said, 'no, Rhonda didn't make it.'"

LeRocque was one of 59 people killed at the Route 91 Harvest Festival. Officials say Stephen Paddock opened fire from his hotel room 32nd floor room at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino and sprayed bullets onto a crowd of more than 22,000 people enjoying the country music. At least 527 people were injured.

"No mother deserves to get a phone call like that about their baby," Champagne said. "She was enjoying country music and they were gonna go to Disney and take their baby girl to Disney."

Champagne, through tears and heartfelt laughs, recalled just how loved her daughter was.

A few weeks ago, Champagne took a trip to Bermuda and her daughter watched her dog, Bella.

"She had bought the dog all kinds of gifts and dog biscuits and the dog slept at the end of Ali's bed," Champagne recalled.

LeRocque, 42, was a God-oriented woman and a devoted Jehovah's Witness, her mother said.

Jason is distraught, Champagne said.

"It was getting late and there was still another set to go on the stage. And so, Roy, the father-in-law, took Ali, her daughter, and went back to the hotel room and during that next set it all happened," Champagne said. "I'm just grateful that Jason didn't get killed and that Ali was safe and she didn't have to see that happen to her mom."

LeRocque was one in a million, her mother said.

"My first thought waking up this morning was I'll never see my baby girl again," Champagne said, weeping. "I loved her so much."

A GoFundMe page for LeRocque raised more than $19,000 of its $25,000 goal by Tuesday afternoon.